Jackpot
by Zer0Crash79
Summary: "That people aren't going to keep you around if all you do is make things worser than they already are!" Pete was practically releasing all of his tension and Nick was getting the brunt of it, like always.


**Disclaimer- **I do not own the rights to the Walking Dead or the characters.

Nicole- Is just a name I came up with for Nick's mom.

* * *

><p>"Damn it..."<p>

Nick swore as he futilely tried to find any semblance of his clothes in his worn out suitcase. He spent a good 5 minutes going tossing around every comic book, pair of underwear, and sock that occupied the case. He screwed up.

"…fuck." Nick got his tired hands out of his suitcase and dragged his feet to his bed, or as his mom likes to call it, "The Haystack". Nick jumped on top of it with a heavy "thud" and an unnerving squeak. He closed his eyes with a pained expression from both his bed's hard surface and the possibility of breaking it.

Before Nick could even voice his opinion to himself about the possibility, he heard the sound of a pair of footsteps entering the room.

"Nick, what the hell do you think you're doing!?" Pete shouted, every muscle tense and ready to pop.

"Pete! Would you calm down?" Nicole snapped, still carrying a face filled with the same tension and panic, since their escape from the undead or "lurkers", as everyone was starting to call them.

"How can I, Nicole!" Pete bellowed, "Nick's only been here for 5 minutes and he's already breaking shit!"

"God…" Nicole muttered, as if she was hoping the fabled being would come down and sweep all of this away. She was growing agitated with Pete, and this whole situation.

"It's practically a haystack covered with a blanket, Pete." Nicole started with a sigh, "And besides even if Nick took his sweet time to plop himself on it, it would still creak like an old elevator" Nicole wanted to end this conversation as quick as possible, and the only way to end a conversation with Pete was to either out-reason him, or out-yell him, the latter being something that only Nicole's headaches could benefit from.

"Nicole…" Pete began, "I understand that the beds here aren't exactly new, but that doesn't mean Nick should be going around practically lunging onto them…" Pete started to squeeze the bridge of his nose, he was dealing with a headache too, but he had to get this into Nick's head. He just had too.

"Nick" Pete addressed him as he always did lately, firmly with controlled tension, and- "Do you have any idea what's going on?" condescension.

Nick sighed and continued to listen as Pete started walking towards him.

"The dead are going around eating people." Nick burrowed his fingers into his bed's cover. "And this is the only place where we can be safe from all of that" Nick furrowed his brow from his Uncle's condescension.

"This is what's going on, Nick, and it's going to keep going like that for a long time! And the last thing we need is for us to get kicked out of here, because you think you can go around breaking shit cause it's old and worn out!" Pete yelled, he had to, how else could he get Nick to learn?

"Man, I know that!" Nick yelled, as he got up from his bed ready for another round of verbal boxing with his Uncle.

"Then fucking show it!" Pete shouted, ready for Nick's usual counter, "How can you expect people to treat you like you've got a head on your shoulders, when you go around fuckin' around!?"

"Pete! Just shut the fuck up!" Nicole was entering this round and as usual she would be on Nick's side. "Nick made a mistake, sure, but there's no reason for you to go up to him and start beating him over the head with it!" Nicole knew this wasn't going to ease her headache, but it seemed Pete was having one of those day where he needed to be out-shouted.

"God…" Pete muttered, before turning around to face Nicole. "Listen, I'm sorry… but someone needs to get this through Nick's thick skull."

"And what's that!" Nick angrily asked, of course he already knew what the answer was. He always did.

"That people aren't going to keep you around if all you do is make things worser than they already are!" Pete was practically releasing all of his tension and Nick was getting the brunt of it, like always.

"Fuck you, I'm leaving!" Nick barreled past Pete, now he was the one with the loudest voice.

"Why? Because you'd rather run away from your problems, instead of facing them!?" Pete yelled from behind him.

"Pete-" Nicole was about to reprimand him for what he said, but Nick reacted quicker.

"No, because you're an asshole!" Nick retorted, as he sped up his departure from the room.

As Nick exited the room's opening he stopped as soon as he got outside of his Uncle and Mom's sight, and started to lean against the solid wall as he breathed heavily. Planning to take some time to consider his next step.

"Dammit Peter! This has to stop" Nick could tell that his mom was close to laying her hands on Pete with her usage of his full name. Nick decided to lean against the wall a little longer in order to hear whatever his mom decided to say or do to his Uncle.

"I know you think you're helping Nick, but you're just hurtin' his feelings."

"Nicole…"

"No, Peter. I know your just trying to look after him, look after all of us, but none of us are gonna get anywhere if you keep treating Nick like that."

"Listen Nicole, I'm-"

"Sorry. I know Peter, but that doesn't mean you can ju- why are you looking at Nick's suitcase?"

"Jesus fucking Christ! He didn't bring any clothes with him! I specifically told him to make sure he brought some of his clothes with him!"

And with that Nick decided his next move should be to get some fresh air.

* * *

><p>"God…" Nick sighed with his head held low and back arched forward, as he usually was these days. He was sitting on the edge of the top of the roof with the greenhouse on it. Looking at the walkers gnash their teeth together and claw at the barriers surrounding the store, some of the ones that were aware of Nick were clawing at the air above them as opposed to the barrier. Nick started to think his usual thought.<p>

"Maybe I should just end it."

But then in a dry quip at his own thought, "But then there wouldn't be anybody to keep some of these guys from gnawin' on the barriers." Nick couldn't help but let out a small empty chuckle. He could really use a drink.

"Hey, Nick!" shouted a familiar voice, taking Nick out of his disturbed stupor.

Nick turned around to see his old pal, Luke, striding towards him with a smile, and just what Nick needed. A beer.

"Hey, man, good to see you." Nick replied in a slightly less depressed tone. He got off from the edge and began to walk towards Luke.

"So, how's it goin' with you and your family?" Luke asked, not aware of the infamous Randall family shout-fest, since he was out with Bill on a scouting mission.

Nick started to go back to arching his back forward and drooping his head down.

Luke decided to drop the question and continue the conversation with a statement.

"So… um, Bill and I recruited someone today." Luke announced with a grin, knowing that Nick always loved hearing his "adventure" stories.

And almost like a little kid, Nick raised his head and stared at Luke, imploring him to tell him more. He could use any bit of positive news Luke had, hell pretty much everybody could use some good news nowadays, and when it comes to good news, Luke was practically the delivery boy.

"Well, Bill and I were on the usual run for supplies and while we were looking for the next store to hit, some lady tried to jump us, but luckily she was pretty unsure of herself and opted to try and get us by threatening us at gunpoint, as opposed to just shooting us in the face from right off the bat." Luke recalled calmly, the memory of the event still fresh.

"Shit, seriously? I don't even know how you can even say all of that and be so relaxed." Nick stated, with a bit of wonder in his eyes.

"Well, it helps that the biggest reason why the lady tried to jump us in the first place was because… she wanted Bill's cigarettes!" Luke was grabbing his stomach in a futile attempt to stop himself from bursting with laughter.

"Cigarettes!" Nick wasn't about to burst out in laughter, but he sure as hell was about to suffer from a bout of the chuckles.

"Cigarettes, man! You should have seen Bill's face, he nearly choked on the one that he had in his mouth when she blurted that out as one of her demands!" Luke cried once he was done laughing at the memory.

"Shit, I wish I was there!" Nick proclaimed in a wistful tone. The idea of Bill, of all people, being so surprised he nearly choked on a cigarette, was just too amusing to him.

Luke started to sit down on the hard concrete below him, and began to look at the sunset before him with possible the warmest face possible.

"You know what, Nick? We hit the jackpot." Luke declared that sentence with such confidence, that it practically sounded like an unchangeable fact of life.

"Yeah…I guess" Nick said with a solemn look on his face.

"You guess?" Luke looked at Nick as if he just said that he won the lottery. "Nick, we hit the jackpot, man." Luke reiterated the "fact" with a serious tone.

Nick still had a solemn face.

Luke knew Nick was having some trouble understanding what he meant, and Luke had to get it through to him. He just had to.

"Nick, just look at us, we're lyin' on top of the roof of a guarded building, there's enough food to keep everyone happy, and most importantly we've got people we can trust all around us." Luke crooned, meaning every bit.

Nick started to get a small smirk on his face.

"And as long as we have people that we can look at and recognize as family…" Luke trailed off as he drew his eyes away from the sun and onto Nick, who was finally getting the gist of what Luke was talking about.

"Then we've hit the jackpot."

And for a while Nick and Luke just sat there staring at the setting sun, until they heard a familiar voice.

"Hey!"

Nick and Luke turned around to see Bill walking towards them, stern as ever.

"Come on, you two know that you can't be that close to the edge of the roof, you'll agitate the Lurkers." Bill stated coldly, and waited for them to heed his words and depart from their lollygagging.

And depart they did, though they did so while snickering and whispering about a cigarette.

"Ah, fuckin' Luke. Should've known he couldn't stop himself from telling that shit to his friend." Carver groaned as he placed his right hand on his forehead and smoothly transitioned it from there to the back of his head.

He was about to turn back and see how the newest member of the community, Tavia, was getting along, before he spotted an unopened can of beer on the ground. He calmly walked over to the beer's location, picked it up and let himself enjoy the one thing he's been aching for since the dead started lurking around.

A beer, a sunset, and a calm late afternoon.


End file.
